Had a client of mine pop in for a lesson today and we made some tremendous upgrades to her swing. The key thing we focused on was improving her body turn/pivot.

As you can see in the above image (left picture) the swing before we made any changes. The hip turn was poor and as a result the swing had got long with a cupped left wrist which caused a very open clubface.

The main focus was incredibly simple; we focused on letting the right leg straighten a little in the backswing (right picture above). This in turn naturally shortened the golf swing as the core was more engaged. This also made it easier to get the left wrist in a much flatter position at the top of the backswing. Having the left wrist set better in the backswing ensured a square clubface which made it so much easier through impact which resulted in soft baby draws!!

The left picture above shows that the club was over plane in the downswing, this was a direct result all stemming from a poor body pivot which lead to a long swing with an open clubface. This makes it hard to control the accuracy of the golf shots and also lacks power and distance was being lost.

The right picture above shows the swing being on plane and in balance with a square clubface. Once again the swing thought was very simple, just let your right leg straighten a little in the backswing and hay presto we upgraded the left wrist position, clubface position and downswing plane which all lead to much greater accuracy and powerful iron shots.

HOW TO STOP THINNING YOUR WEDGES

It is so frustrating after you have hit a couple of reasonable shots on a par 4 or par 5 and are left with a nice 70 yard pitch into the green and then it happens, you skull it right across the back of the green!!

On minute you are looking to finish the hole off in a tour pro like fashion and the next minute you are searching for your ball in the long grass….

Lets stop this pain and watch the video as PGA Golf Coach Mark Wood explains the main common reasons as to why you might be thinning your wedge shots and how to fix it instantly.

HOW DANNY WILLETT DOES IT

This is it, the final tournament of 2015 on the European Tour. Danny Willett is just 1613 points behind current leader Rory McIIroy and a good finish from either player this week will more than likely be crowned European Number 1. They do need a good finish though as there are a handful of players that could do the business if they both missed the cut.

The thing I like about Willett is his ability to work around his limitations given his physical condition. Willett has a long term injury that affects the amount of hip rotation he can produce. The team that surrounds Danny Willett have worked hard to help him develop a technique to work to so that the injury does not affect how he plays and scores around the golf course.

Create Room to Swing

A great check point reference to see if you are the correct distance from the golf ball is to be able to have a hand span between your grip and the inside of the left thigh. You can do this whilst out playing on the golf course as it only takes a few seconds. Ensuring that you have created the necessary room for your arms to swing freely past your body during the hitting zone will get you hitting the ball much more solid from off the clubface.

Explosive Distance from the Tee

One way of creating energy in the golf swing is to increase the pressure point between your feet and ground in a backswing. Many golfers as they swing back pull the force up away from the ground and this creates a negative effect on creating power. Think of jumping up into the air if you kept your pressure of your feet very light on the ground and then jumped you will not get very high. If you increase your pressure down into the ground before you jumped you would jump much higher as it gives you more energy from a solid base.

Mark’s 5 Top Tips for Great Golf

Know your iron distances. Just by knowing how far you actually hit each club in the bag can save you up to 5 shots in a round of golf. Make it a priory to know exactly how far each club carries, use launch monitors and range finders as this will quickly and easily identify your yardages for you.

Love your wedges. Carry 3 wedges in your golf bag, an example of lofts might be 47 degree, 53 degree and 58 degrees. This will give you more variety on playing your short game shots. Learn 3 distances with each wedge for pitching. Hip to Hip, Chest to Chest and full swing as this will really sharpen up the pitching game. Have different lofts also helps in the bunkers and a lot of the time you can you your 58 for short greenside bunker shots and your 53 degree for longer greenside bunker shots.

Get your driver fitted. Most of the time golfers will just buy the driver from off the pro shop shelf. This will cost you distance as you will most likely end up with the wrong shaft and loft combination. Spend some time with a PGA Professional and get them to fit you on a launch monitor. This way you will get a driver fitted and suited to you and your golf swing helping you maximise your distance and accuracy.

Good Rhythm is Key. “My swing just does not feel good”. This is a lot of comments I sometimes get from very good golfers. Quite often they have just lost the rhythm of their golf swing. The recipe for finding that silky rhythm is to hit lots of short irons making half swings, then three-quarter length swings and really slowing things down. It is amazing how the swing mechanics then take care of themselves and all of a sudden they comfortable again. The best quick tip in golf is to focus on your rhythm and balance.

Think before Teeing Off. One key strategy in playing any golf hole is to focus on where you would like to be playing the next shot from. If that means on a tight treeline par 4 that a hybrid off the tee would work better than trying to steer a driver up the fairway then play the hybrid. If your second shot is a tough one over water and you are not sure if you can carry it then lay up to a distance that you like for your third shot into the green. The key here is to play within you and have a strategy (game plan) in playing each and every hole. It is what the Pro’s do!!

Which has some great funny golf stories and jokes and the following article describing in their opinion the world’s most dangerous golf course, this is defina

Play with Care!

Will and Guy feel that we have found the world’s most dangerous and frightening golf course. It can be found in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea at Panmunjom.

The course is in Camp Bonifas and sadly only offers one hole: a 192-yard par 3. We can add that it provides the US soldiers, some 50 strong, with fun activity. We ought to include the fact that it has live landmines scattered throughout the rough!

“Danger! Do not retrieve balls from the rough; live mine fields” greets visitors before they step onto the course, which contains an AstroTurf putting green and, for some reason, a gun tower. The minefields surround the hole, and at least one mine is said to have exploded due to an errant slice.